Brushing teeth: Parental reflections on the importance of oral health and pink princess toothbrushes

I sometimes cringe when I witness the power that putting Disney Princesses on pink and purple toothbrushes has on increasing the likelihood that girls will happily engage in the ever-so-healthy habit of brushing their teeth. To be fair, let me also say that I’m sure I’d be equally impressed by Transformers or Cars or Spiderman or any other enticing children’s toothbrushes that predictably coax boys into opening wide and brushing. That said, I’m going to save my concerns about of the influence of today’s societal “norms” on children and gender stereotyping for another day in order to focus on the very important topic of the month: children’s oral health.

It seems a bit superficial to start out by admitting that I do, in fact, love Princess toothbrushes. Not that I use one personally, of course, but rather I love that they have a way of getting even the feistiest and most willful of four, three, and even two-year-old girls to proudly tell me just how excited they are to own and use one (or two or even three) of these agents of change.

That’s right, I am hoping to convince you (in hopefully 800 words or less) that what may seem like a cute little toothbrush is actually much more than what it may seem. Especially in combination with a few other crucial factors (such as toothpaste, fluoride, and dental sealants), toothbrushes really can serve as powerful agents of change.

I am aware that for many of us, getting our kids to brush their teeth is something we know we should do and therefore commit to implementing from very early on in our parenting careers. Based on the number of questions I’m asked, I’m pretty sure a majority of us have also had to cope with babies’ erupting teeth, searched for ways to get toddlers to open their mouths, and/or struggled to get tweens and teens to take us seriously when we remind them to brush their teeth. All their teeth. With toothpaste. Not every so often, but every day.

So each February, when Children’s Dental Health Month rolls around, I’m happy. Happy because I am painfully aware of how difficult it can be to draw much-needed attention to the importance of children’s oral health – especially as a topic of key national importance. If setting up a campaign and dedicating a month to this worthy cause is what it takes, I’m all for it.

If this month serves as a useful reminder for all of you to brush up on tips for taking care of teeth – from baby’s to teen’s and everyone in between – then we’re off to a good start. It’s also a good time to double check your calendar and make sure your children (starting at the age of one!) are scheduled to get dental check-ups every six months.

But I also hope February’s increased focus on children’s oral health gives you an even healthier appreciation for just how much impact oral health – or the lack thereof – can have on children’s overall health, self-image, and well-being. Cavities and tooth decay (or “dental caries”) are actually considered a chronic disease. And not just any chronic disease, but one that affects more children in the U.S. than any other (five times more than asthma!) and is projected to afflict fifty percent of all children entering kindergarten this year. When left untreated, tooth decay has the very real potential to cause pain, infections, and subsequent difficulty playing, eating, speaking and learning. In fact, it is estimated that children miss nearly 51 million school hours each year because of dental-related illnesses alone. That’s not even to mention the social importance of a smile and just how damaging tooth decay can be to one’s self-esteem.

So I’m willing to admit that making the leap from Princess toothbrushes to this serious of a topic is a big one. But the fact of the matter is that I couldn’t agree more with Jeff Sheldon (a Community Health Educator in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Office of Oral Health and Dentistry) and Nebraska’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joanne Schaefer that taking care of our children’s teeth is an under-emphasized health priority in Nebraska. I’m fairly certain that Rick Ruggles’ recent article entitled Children walk out with smiles put a smile on their faces like it did mine as he described Creighton Dental School’s Give Kids a Smile event earlier this month. I just hope that everyone remembers that oral health is important every day of every month – for your children, and for all children. If we want to invest in our kids, let’s be sure to invest in their smiles too.

For more information on children’s oral health, you can go to:

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska

Starfish & Mittens: Helping Teach Our Children Kindness and Empathy

As you are probably well aware, my focus is and always has been on kids, parenting, and families. Quite often – whether in the books I write or at my childcare center – this translates into helping parents better understand, educate, and guide children towards happier, healthier futures.

Today is no different. In fact, I was halfway done writing my Live Well Nebraska blog in honor of National Children’s Dental Health Month, a topic I truly believe should be hugely important for all parents – perhaps more so than many are even aware.

As is often the case when I’ve promised myself I’m not going to be distracted while writing, however, I’ve found myself distracted. As soon as I opened my web browser with what I swear was for work purposes only, I saw a top-of-the-page CNN video entitled Children of the Trash Dump. These kind of titles always lure me in, and I’ve never been able to keep from clicking on the links and watching the videos. When I do, it inevitably solidifies my desire to do more to improve the lives of children and their families. Today, my conviction was made stronger than ever.

You see, I’m fresh on the heels of a very powerful trip to S. Africa, during which I had the opportunity to tour the makeshift shantytown of Dunoon just outside of Cape Town, where I witnessed firsthand both the terrible poverty and incredible resilience of its women and children. I left there more determined than ever to do something. I imagine watching CNN’s story about the plight of Vietnamese children living on a trash dump and at great risk of falling prey to child trafficking may have nearly the same effect on some of you.

The question that often arises, however, is what can one really do to tackle such a huge problem or even make a dent in such desperate situations as poverty, child trafficking or illiteracy. In the case of S. Africa, I joined about fifteen other members of the Global Hygiene Council to see firsthand the incredible power of teaching basic handwashing. Sure, I talk about handwashing all the time, and yes – we teach the students at my childcare center this basic life skill on a daily basis. But calling it a “life skill” has a way of taking on a very different meaning when one is teaching handwashing in a community with little running water and barely able to scrape together the dollar per week it costs to buy one’s family a bar of soap.

The hopeful news in Dunoon is that the four-year handwashing study conducted in the face of both poverty and health illiteracy yielded very promising results – on the order of reducing diarrheal illness by 30-50 percent! Those results would be great even here in Omaha, where parents inevitably are plagued by diarrheal illness and fret over the accompanying need to keep their children from becoming dehydrated. Now consider the fact that diarrheal disease worldwide is one of the leading causes of death for children . That’s why I’m now dead serious about finding a way to donate to the Dunoon community as much soap as I can get my hands on (along with books and beads). If you’re interested in helping me make this happen, by all means let me know.

But back to the children in Vietnam. The “hope” part of the story promised in the video’s promo is based on one woman’s vision to set up a non-profit to fight trafficking in Vietnam. This small organization is currently educating 200 of these poorest-of-the poor girls in hopes of giving them a chance for a better future and a better likelihood of avoiding predatory child traffickers. The visionary founder interviewed in the segment not only refers to the hugely important focus on “saving” girls through education, but also touches on the importance of improving the community’s reported illiteracy level from it’s staggering 99+ percent.

Let me just say that I couldn’t be more touched, or more in agreement. I thoroughly agree that education and literacy is fundamentally important and the key to helping people out of poverty and lead more successful lives. I’ve also become increasingly convinced with the notion that the education and empowerment of girls is absolutely key to solving not only poverty, but quite honestly – a good many of the world’s problems.

If you don’t believe me, then maybe you’ll believe Oprah. Or Hillary or Bill Clinton. Or pretty much anyone who has ever read Nicholas Kristof’s powerful book Half the Sky. Those who read it are likely to be permanently changed in the way they view the importance of girls, ready to join this global movement, and all but insist that everyone needs to read this book.

And finally – I am a huge believer in the power of doing something over nothing. You may have heard the anecdote of the boy and the starfish. It goes like this: a man and a boy are walking on a beach littered with washed-up starfish. Boy picks up starfish and throws it back in the ocean. Man sees this and applies the all-too-common viewpoint when he tells the boy that there are far too many washed up starfish to possibly save them all. Boy responds, “Well, I made a huge difference to that one.”  I love this story. I try to live by it. Clearly, so do the people whose far nobler efforts are recounted in Kristof’s book and CNN’s poignant video. The point is, every human being counts, and each and every one of us can do something to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

At Primrose, my teachers have t-shirts that state, “No matter how big or small, we all stand to make a difference in the world.” My husband and I were convinced to move to Omaha nine years ago in large part because we believe that here in Omaha, we are not alone in our belief that teaching even our youngest children to be involved in the community and help others is fundamental. And our Helping Hands curriculum isn’t just about the actual dollar amount the kids raise to donate, or about how many mittens, books or cans of food they collect “for kids who don’t have them” (although I’ll tell you that I couldn’t be more proud of the students for their selfless and impressive accomplishments). It’s that they’re learning the lifelong lesson that we really can make a difference if we all just take whatever opportunity we have to throw starfish back into the ocean.

With that said, I hope all of you will consider what you might do. Start big or start small. Think globally or act locally. Get your kids involved and I promise, the world will be a better place for it.

On that note, I’ll get back to writing about getting kids to brush their teeth. After all, teeth are really important too. And even pink princess toothbrushes can play a part in the grand scheme of oral health promotion.

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska

Katy Perry, Elmo & Sesame Street: An Important Discussion about the Sexualization of Girls

For anyone who may have missed the recent parenting news of the day, pop superstar Katy Perry recently taped a guest appearance on Sesame Street in which she was filmed running from Elmo in a short little low-cut dress and veil. Her yet-to-officially-air frolic with Elmo and friends quickly made its way to You-Tube, triggering a virtual firestorm of national media attention and the subsequent cancellation of the episode’s airing. The fundamental question being raised? Whether Perry’s revealing attire was inappropriate for children’s television.

After listening to one too many national commentators conclude that we’ve all become too prudish as parents and asking, “what’s the big deal?” I feel compelled to stop everything else I’m doing to help parents raise happy, healthy children and answer this admittedly rhetorical question. The fact of the matter is that while it may be superficially amusing to deem this “Cleavagegate” and laugh at the resulting Saturday Night Live skit of Perry donning a breast-emphasizing Elmo t-shirt, there’s something very, very fundamentally wrong about our culture’s acceptance of a scantily-clad 20-something year old female flaunting her highly sexualized assets on what is arguably America’s last bastion of wholesome children’s television.

While I’ve just outed myself as what some would call a prudish parent, I guarantee you I’m not alone in my beliefs. As parents, I strongly believe we need to avoid being lulled into complacency while our children are being steadily fed a media diet of increasingly sexualized images. While sexual well-being is an unquestionably important part of healthy development, a 2007 national report from the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls concluded that sexualization of girls and women is both pervasive and has wide-ranging negative effects.

So what’s a parent to do? First and foremost, don’t trivialize all of the messages our youngest girls are getting – all of which repeatedly and cumulatively teach them that what really matters is how “hot” they look. You can also take the following steps, adapted from the APA Task Force Report, to teach girls from a very young age to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look.

  • Tune in and talk to your children. Pay attention to what they’re seeing on TV, in magazines and in the world around them. Discuss what they see in such a way that they learn that looks aren’t the most important quality.
  • Question choices. Don’t hesitate to discuss clothing choices with your daughters so they understand why too short, too revealing, and/or too tight just isn’t appropriate.
  • Speak up. Commit to noticing disturbing images and influences, and then speak up and discuss them with your children. Don’t be afraid to say no to your children, or to any products, campaigns or companies that send the wrong message(s).
  • Educate. Many parents simply aren’t comfortable talking about sexuality with their children, but it’s important. I suggest checking out So Sexy So Soon  and From Diapers to Dating to get yourself started.

While I wish that this was all there was to be said on the subject, the sexualization of girls will inevitably continue to be a force to be reckoned with. And it seems that Katy Perry and her wardrobe choices are here to stay – now reportedly being given a warm welcome by The Simpsons.

While that may be true, we simply don’t have to sit back and allow our children to watch! As parents, we really do have the power to raise our children with respect and a healthy body image, so long as we start by acknowledging that it really is a “big deal”!

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska